- Invoicing and Estimates: Users can create professional invoices and estimates that look clear and detailed.
- Online Payments: Clients can pay directly online, which helps businesses get paid faster.
- Client Management: The system stores client details and organizes records for easy tracking.
- Work Orders: Contractors can turn estimates into work orders and keep projects organized.
- Change Orders: Users can adjust project details and costs when changes happen.
- Expense Tracking: Businesses can keep track of costs and see how they affect profits.
- Reports and Insights: Joist provides simple reports that show business performance and finances.
- Mobile Access: The app works on phones and tablets, which gives contractors flexibility on the go.
Joist
Joist helps contractors create invoices, estimates, and manage payments for projects.
Updated July 27, 2026
Joist Overview
Joist is a business invoicing and estimating platform designed for contractors and service professionals. It allows users to quickly create and send professional estimates and invoices, collect digital signatures, take online payments, and manage clients from one place.
The platform also covers job expense tracking, financial reports and a QuickBooks Online sync, which helps keep paperwork in one system. With its user-friendly interface and mobile access, Joist simplifies day-to-day billing for tradespeople working from the truck rather than a desk.
Key Features
Pricing
| Plan Name | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Key Inclusions (per official site) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basics | $10 /mo | $100 /yr ($8.34 /mo) | Up to 5 documents per month, online payments, homeowner financing |
| Pro | $17 /mo | $170 /yr ($14.17 /mo) | Everything in Basics, plus unlimited documents and clients, contracts and eSignatures, logo and photo uploads, work order generation, QuickBooks integration |
| Elite | $32 /mo | $320 /yr ($26.67 /mo) | Everything in Pro, plus business reports, sales dashboards, change order management, advanced line item management, business licence showcase, insurance uploads, automated review requests |
Every plan opens with a 14-day free trial and no card is required, and annual billing works out to two months free. The AI Receptionist, which answers missed calls and captures leads, is a separate add-on starting at $49 a month.
Pricing source: https://www.joist.com/pricing/
Pros
| Competitor | Pros of Joist |
|---|---|
| Housecall Pro | Housecall Pro starts at $79 a month for a single user billed monthly, or $59 billed annually, and its five-user Essentials tier is $189. Joist Pro is $17 a month with unlimited documents and clients, so a solo contractor who mainly needs estimates, invoices and payments is not paying for dispatching and marketing tools. |
| Jobber | Jobber publishes a price only for its top Plus tier, $499 a month for five users with extra seats at $29 each, and routes its smaller plans to a sales call. Joist lists all three tiers openly at $10, $17 and $32 a month and starts a 14-day trial without a card. |
| QuickBooks | QuickBooks Online opens at $38 a month for one user and reaches $275 for Advanced. Joist Elite is $32 a month and is built around the job rather than the ledger: estimates with line items on the phone, digital signatures on the spot, and a work order generated from the approved estimate. |
| Invoice2go | Invoice2go sells annual plans at $79.99, $119.99 and $449.99 and stays close to plain billing. Joist adds contractor-shaped steps, work order generation on the Pro tier and change order management on Elite, plus homeowner financing offers on every plan including $10 Basics. |
Cons
| Competitor | Cons of Joist |
|---|---|
| Housecall Pro | Joist has no scheduling or dispatching at all. Housecall Pro bundles both from its $59-a-month annual Basic plan and includes five users on Essentials, so a growing crew that needs to assign jobs by the day outgrows Joist quickly. |
| Jobber | Joist has no crew scheduling, no routing and no two-way SMS, so coordinating several people still happens by phone. Jobber’s Plus tier includes 10 users with automated job costing, a lead pipeline and a marketing suite, which is what a multi-crew operation is paying $499 a month for. |
| QuickBooks | Joist cannot replace accounting software, and its QuickBooks sync only appears on the Pro tier and above. QuickBooks Online adds payroll, tax tracking and reconciliation, and its $115 Plus plan covers inventory and project profitability that Joist’s business reports do not touch. |
| Invoice2go | Joist bills only in US dollars, so cross-border work is out. Invoice2go quotes its $79.99, $119.99 and $449.99 annual plans in a long list of currencies including GBP, EUR, INR, MXN and ZAR, and offers deeper invoice customisation than Joist’s advanced line item management. |
Reviews
- Software Advice Review (Rating: 4.1/5): One contractor wrote that “the app gave our documents a professional look, and the ability to collect digital signatures and payments right through the platform made things really convenient,” and another said the estimates are clear to clients and insurance adjusters alike. The lowest marks go to support, 3.8, and one long-time user described waiting over an hour on chat before being told that eight years of estimates and records were locked behind a paid subscription.
- Trustpilot Review (Rating: 4.4/5): Several business owners credit Joist with streamlining estimating and invoicing, and one reports that clients use the PayPal integration on “nearly 90% of our invoices.” Another sums it up as “Simple, Fast and Dependable,” and a third says “I’ve never had the App crash, so reliability is high.” The complaints are mostly about money and support: a customer of three years wrote in January 2026 that Joist was “scamming people on processing fees” and criticised the service he received.
- Capterra Review (Rating: 4.1/5): A January 2025 reviewer wrote that Joist “helps to create professional invoices and we can add any information to the invoices be it the logo of our company or a note at the end.”
- joistapp.com Review: The help article explains that after an invoice gets fully paid, clients automatically receive a prompt to leave a Google Review. It walks through steps like tapping “Enable Reviews” and confirms the feature requires a Joist Elite plan and a Google Business profile in the US or Canada.
- GetApp Review (Rating: 4.1/5 from 89 reviews): The breakdown gives ease of use 4.5, features 4.0, value for money 4.0 and customer support 3.8, with 42 of the 89 reviewers awarding five stars and 8 leaving one or two. Reviewers single out the simple interface and quick invoice creation, and the QuickBooks Online integration is rated 5.0 by the four users who mention it.
- Google Play Review: The Play Store page emphasizes tools that calculate material and labor costs, attach contracts, collect signatures on the spot, and accept credit card payments directly in the app. It also promotes cloud access across devices, exporting data to accounting programs, and live chat support available seven days a week.
- apple.com Review: The App Store listing promotes fast support through email and in-app live chat, with customer service available seven days a week. Recent updates repeatedly reference “bug fixes and performance improvements,” signaling ongoing maintenance and stability efforts.
